REMEMBER STEVIE

I remember Stevie Reilly as the tiniest girl in my son's class,
sitting in the front row of the class photo, as she always had to so
we could see her. I remember her as the shy girl with delicate
features on the field trip in cycle one, as the keen artist learning
to draw in my son's art class, and as the quiet girl with ponytails on
the graduation trip to the Old Port. I remember Stevie now, sadly,
every time my son wears his Mount Pleasant grad sweatshirt. Her
signature is centered on the back, nestled safely among those of her
classmates.

To remember Stevie this way is all the student council and students at
Mount Pleasant School hope to do by planting a tree in a simple
ceremony. Nothing more. To remember Stevie thus does not encourage
teen drug use. Weeping for this lost Stevie will not create a cult
figure. Here lies no threat, nothing to judge, no example to hold up -
only loss.

By all means, participate actively in the school's drug awareness,
which has been in effect all the years I have had children at Mount
Pleasant. Find your own lessons in this unhappy tale, and share them
with your children. Just leave the students at Mount Pleasant to
remember Stevie, and her loss, in their own way.

Scott Jamieson